Wellie died today.

I just found that picture in photobooth, I don't even remember taking it. I look like I haven't showered but I like it anyhow - I think it's the only one I have of him in Florida.

He woke me up twice last night doing I can't even imagine what. I shot out of bed both times because I thought someone was breaking in the house or getting shot, and each time I turned on the light he just sat staring at me, completely still. He's loud all the time, but this was entirely different and I've been looking at his cage trying to figure out what he might have been doing. I can't figure it out.

This morning when I woke up, I knew something was up because he didn't acknowledge me at all. Generally when get up in the morning, I go over to his cage and he bites my nose. Today he sat in the far corner, not even looking at me. Since I was running late for work, I told myself he'd be fine and ran out the door. I knew I was wrong though and as soon as I sat down at my desk at work, I'd wished I'd stayed home. Chinchillas thrive on attention. If they're feeling sad, they will give up and let themselves die. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but it's awful to think that if I'd just stayed here and sat with him in my lap for a few hours, he would be fine.

Death seems to be everywhere right now. My friends have lost some of the most important people in their lives. Two people in my hometown passed away this week and a third is brain dead. My losing my pet chinchilla pales in comparison. Everyone is losing people that they love and I've been crying all night over an animal. I can't decide if I am being irrational or not.

I knew when I started this blog that I'd be one of those people who only posted every six months or so.

This is because my life is BORING. I start writing something every week or so and end up deleting it because I don't know how to be interesting.

Semi exciting: A few months ago I made a very sudden decision to move to Florida, and basically just ran with it. After much packing, stress, ridiculousness, driving 1500 miles, (and stopping to see friends in Nashville and Valdosta) I got here last Thursday. So, it's exciting in that I left my entire life and all my friends to go to a brand new place, but it's very un-exciting in that I now live in Naples, home of the old people. I don't know anyone except my dad and his wife - who are very graciously allowing me to stay with them. Because of that, I'm finally going back to school and there is a chance I'll finish up at the end of the summer. It's more likely that I'll have to stick around for the fall semester, but we'll see how many classes they let me cram in (21 this semester!). Either way, I'll graduate sooner than I expected and I am thankful for that.

The school I am going to, Florida Gulf Coast University, took almost all of my Social Work credits so I'm caught up with their program and just have to take the senior classes. This semester I have Research Methods, Social Work Practice 3, Field Work Seminar, American Government, and Colloquium (something about ecology). I'm also going to be doing a ~20 hour a week internship in conjunction with the Field Seminar class, so it's definitely going to be a busy semester.

Tomorrow, my goal is to build a sweet cage for Wellington. My life in Naples is pretty exciting so far, right?

new jersey.

I'm in New Jersey, visiting my family for the first time in nearly a year. This trip, I realized after I got here, marks the first time that I have been away from my house for more than a night since I moved in. That was in August. How ridiculous is that?

I'm staying with my sister Shannon but for tonight I am at my brother and sister-in-law's house. The last time I was here, they'd just been given the keys so they hadn't even started moving in yet. Everything about this place is incredible. It's very prominent/wealthy family circa 1970. There is a record player that folds out of the kitchen wall. The record player is synced with the intercom so you can play records throughout the entire house. In the basement, there is a bunker. Like, a concrete room that locks from the inside and has hidden air vents leading outside. So should South Jersey ever fall upon dangerous times, Shawn and Megan will be safe.

Anyhow, I convinced my little brother Josh to come stay here with me tonight. We drank hot chocolate (with fluff instead of marshmallows.....best idea ever), ate popcorn, and watched The Blindside. Nothing makes me happier than my family partaking in seemingly normal family activities. It wasn't normal for us to do "normal" things and I always get a little overly excited about it. This Sunday we're even attempting a family Easter. I wasn't even sure if I was going to let my entire family know I was back, so this is a big step from that.

On a different note, today is six years from the day that my friend German died. I am amazed and freaked out about how quickly time has passed since then. I'm no longer friends with anyone that knew him and it has been a little bit rough, not having anyone to talk to about it. Missing him doesn't hurt quite like it used to but the idea of forgetting him is so, so, scary to me. He was the first guy I ever had a crush on. I loved so much about him and I wish that I had someone that I could talk to about all of those things. I'm a little shaken at the moment because I just tried to access an old online journal of his, and the website is not letting me. I'm nervous that has been purged, but I was just on it less than two weeks ago so the timing would really be odd. I e-mailed the maintainer of the website and I'm really hoping that everything he had written isn't gone.

Sorry for being all sentimental. It has been a strange week.

mini adventure

So I still have this thing.

I wish I'd thought to update in the past few months because I've been doing quite a bit of adventuring. Nothing too exciting, but little adventures that keep things interesting, I guess.

Yesterday, after a month of begging, we finally took a trip to the beach. I don't know why, but someone jokingly suggested it awhile ago and I just latched on to the idea. We have tons of snow in Michigan so obviously there isn't going to be a lot to do there, but winter trips to the shore in New Jersey used to be my favorite thing to do. We'd have nothing else to do in the middle of the night, so the hour drive there took up some time and I guess it just seemed exciting to play in the sand, in the dark, when no one else was around.

Anyhow, after getting slightly lost and ignoring directions from a gas station attendant (she told us all the beaches that weren't gated would require a 2 miles hike through the woods), we managed to find Lake Michigan. We had to walk down a bunch of stairs covered in snow and ice and it was such a strange experience. It was dark (and my vision isn't great) so it was difficult for me to tell the difference between the sky, water, snow, and sand. It looked like a ton of nothingness and I was a little freaked out that we were walking toward it.

After a bit of stumbling, we found our way to the edge of the water. Then my roommate Melissa pointed out that there were little miniature icebergs floating in front of us. Then Erin point out that directly next to us there was a large formation of snow and ice that had broken off and fallen into the water. She also pointed out that it was exactly like the one that we were standing on.

I think my heart almost fell out. How scary would it be to fall into a freezing lake in the middle of the night? That isn't exactly the way I'd like to die.


So anyway, I guess I don't really have anything interesting to blog about. Living with six other people means that the kitchen is pretty much always a disaster, so I don't think I've even attempted to cook anything since Thanksgiving. I should probably try to start experimenting again because I really liked doing that. I'm determined to think of some way to keep my little blog alive though, because I like the idea of having it around.

So it has been awhile. Right after I started this blog, I got sick and promptly forgot about it. I've since started a few entries but I was waiting on some pictures to include. Mine are only cell phone pictures and not very good but the others have yet to materialize and I thought I'd go ahead an update anyhow, before a full month passed.

Erin and I finally went apple-picking and while it was fun, the place didn't have a great selection and we mostly stuck to one type. They were all eaten up before we had the chance to do very much with them but I did make some apple muffins and apple chips. The muffins were a bit crumbly, but delicious, and the apple chips weren't baked long enough but the thinner pieces were perfect. I'm learning! The cider press is still in my living room, waiting to be used, but I have to pick up some more apples and cheesecloth.

Fall is absolutely my favorite season and I've been enjoying it so much. I love cold weather and bundling up and wearing hoodies all the time. I like to crunch leaves when I'm walking (although there hasn't been a whole lot of that as it's been raining quite a bit) and it always smells good outside and Fall means Halloween and Thanksgiving. Plus it's pomegranate season and I don't know what more I could ask for.

I'm going to be a sad girl when it's over.

Oh, I forgot. I finished this last week:

It's an entry from Sylvia Plath's journal. I was originally basing it off of a stencil painting I saw but I couldn't find any stencils that I liked so I ended up free-handing it. It's messy and there are quite a few mistakes (the "I" in the beginning is different from the rest) but I like it. Now I just have to hang it up somewhere..

-jamie

Hii.

I just wanted this to look less empty. I decided it was time for a new blog-y type thing because tumblr wasn't really working for me. This won't be about anything specifically, I just wanted a place to talk about the random stuff I do. I'm trying to improve my less-than-amazing cooking and baking abilities, so I'll probably talk about that a lot, and who knows what else.

So I guess this is all for now! My roommate brought me a cider press to experiment with, and we're going apple picking this weekend, so hopefully that will give me something to post about soon.